A brief summary of current government consultations of potential interest to RSN members. This is not intended as an exhaustive list of all relevant consultations.

CURRENT CONSULTATIONS:

Future support for low carbon heat

Government state that heating of homes, businesses and industry is responsible for a third of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and decarbonisation of heat is one of the biggest challenges we face in meeting our climate targets.

This consultation sets out proposals for:

a Green Gas Support Scheme: increasing the proportion of green gas in the grid through support for biomethane injection

a Clean Heat Grant: support for heat pumps and in certain circumstances biomass, through an upfront capital grant to help address the barrier of upfront cost

budget control and financial management of the spending proposals for green gas and buildings technologies

participant compliance

Interaction with the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) schemes:

In the March 2020 budget, the government announced:

an extension to the domestic RHI for a further year to 31 March 2022

the introduction of a flexible, third allocation of tariff guarantees on the non-domestic RHI. The non-domestic RHI will close to new applications on 31 March 2021

The government has launched a consultation in order to gather views on its proposals to expand the dormant assets scheme to include new financial assets.

The public consultation follows two industry-led reports, which made a series of recommendations on broadening the current scheme beyond bank and building society accounts to include assets from the insurance and pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors.

Having considered industry’s recommendations, the government is now inviting input on the detailed proposals to expand the scheme. They are particularly interested in hearing views from potential participants, consumer groups, regulators, and interested individuals.

The government states: “Good regulation is essential to successful business. The government strives to achieve the right regulatory balance between supporting excellent business practice and protecting workers, consumers and the environment.

“The Reforming Regulation Initiative is an invitation to businesses and the public to help government ensure that regulation is sensible and proportionate. We’re particularly interested in the needs of small businesses.

“Please let us know how we could improve the system of UK regulation by responding to this short consultation.

“Please note that this is about improving the system rather than changing regulatory decisions about individual cases. If you want to challenge a decision about a case, you can get details of how to appeal from the relevant regulator’s website.”

Future of transport regulatory review: call for evidence on micromobility vehicles, flexible bus services and mobility as a service – Department for Transport and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

This call for evidence is asking for information and views on 3 areas of the ‘Future of transport regulatory review’. The 3 areas are:

micromobility vehicles

flexible bus services

mobility as a service (MaaS)

Questions cover a number of areas including:

whether certain micromobility vehicles (such as electric scooters) should be permitted on the road, and if so what vehicle and user requirements would be appropriate

how effective existing rules are around flexible bus services, and which other areas of the bus, taxi and private hire vehicle framework should be considered in this review

what the opportunities and risks of MaaS platforms might be, and what role central and local governments should play in their development